Federated search results scoring

ABSTRACT

A method and apparatus of a device that ranks a plurality of query results from a plurality of search domains is described. In this embodiment, the device receives a query from a client. In addition, the device applies the query to the plurality of search domains and a broad-base search domain. Furthermore, the device receives the plurality of query results from the plurality of search domains and a set of broad-base query results from the broad-base search domain. The device additionally ranks the plurality of query results using the set of broad-base query results and returns a ranked plurality of query results to the client.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

Applicant claims the benefit of priority of prior, provisionalapplication Ser. No. 62/171,996, filed Jun. 5, 2015, the entirety ofwhich is incorporated by reference.

FIELD OF INVENTION

This invention relates generally to search technology and moreparticularly to indexing web pages with deep links, an improvedproximity scoring function for query results, and an improved federatedquery result ranking method.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

A user will often perform a query search to lookup information on theWeb or from other data sources. A query search begins with a clientreceiving the query string, which is sent to a search server. The searchserver receives query string and searches a search index for resultsthat match this query string. The indices can include web pages or otherobjects available across a network, or can include information aboutobjects located locally on the device (e.g., files, media, contacts,and/or other types of objects stored locally on the device). This searchallows a user to determine which of the web pages that are accessedremotely or objects located locally on the device that match the query.Accessing one of these web pages or local objects will load the web pagein a web browser.

Some web pages or other objects include deep links that are a referenceto a location in an application, such as a location in a mobileapplication executing on mobile device. For example, the web site couldbe review-type web site that includes thousands or millions of reviewsfor business, services, and/or other sites of interest. In this example,one or more of the reviews hosted on the web site could include a deeplink for that review. A deep link can allow a user to access content ina mobile application, where the mobile application would likely give aricher experience for this content than the user has when viewing thesame content through a web browser. This is because the mobileapplication is developed to handle this content, where a web browser isa generally designed application.

SUMMARY OF THE DESCRIPTION

A method and apparatus of a device that performs a search using a deeplink index is described. In an exemplary embodiment, the device receivesa query on a device. The device additionally determines a plurality ofresults matching the query. The device further determines a subset ofthe plurality of results that correspond to at least one nativeapplication installed on the device. In addition, the device presents alink for each of the results in the subset of the plurality of resultswith data that launches the corresponding native application if thatlink is selected, where the link is a deep link that reference alocation in the corresponding native application. Upon detecting one ofthe links corresponding to the subset of the plurality of results isselected, the device launches the corresponding native application withthe data for that link.

In another embodiment, a device indexes deep links in a search index. Inthis embodiment, the device receives a set of seed objects. For eachobject in the set of seed objects, the device determines if the objectincludes a deep link, where the deep link references a location in anapplication. The device further adds the deep link to the search index.In addition, the device uses the search index to serve query, where thesearch index includes the indexed deep links.

In a further embodiment, a device returns a plurality of ranked queryresults for a query. In this embodiment, the device receives the queryfrom a client. In addition, the device determines a plurality of queryresults matching the query. Furthermore, the device scores each of theplurality of query results using an order-based quadratic proximityfunction. The device additionally ranks the plurality of query resultsusing the plurality of scores to determine the plurality of ranked queryresults. The device further sends the plurality of ranked query resultsto the client.

In yet another embodiment, a device ranks a plurality of query resultsfrom a plurality of search domains. In this embodiment, the devicereceives a query from a client. In addition, the device applies thequery to the plurality of search domains and a broad-base search domain.Furthermore, the device receives the plurality of query results from theplurality of search domains and a set of broad-base query results fromthe broad-base search domain. The device additionally ranks theplurality of query results using the set of broad-base query results andreturns a ranked plurality of query results to the client.

Other methods and apparatuses are also described.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The present invention is illustrated by way of example and notlimitation in the figures of the accompanying drawings in which likereferences indicate similar elements.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of one embodiment of a system that indexes webpages with deep links for use in a search index and search service.

FIG. 2 is an illustration of one embodiment of a web page with a deeplink.

FIG. 3 is a flow diagram of one embodiment of a process to index deeplinks from multiple deep links.

FIG. 4 is a flow diagram of one embodiment of a process to perform aquery search using a deep link index.

FIG. 5 is a flow diagram of one embodiment of a process to receive andpresent a deep link as part of a query result.

FIG. 6 is a flow diagram of one embodiment of a process to perform aquery search using a proximity scoring function.

FIG. 7 is a flow diagram of one embodiment of a process to score anobject using an ordered quadratic proximity function.

FIG. 8 is a block diagram of one embodiment of a federator that performsa multi-domain search using results from one search domain to rankresults from other search domains.

FIG. 9 is a flow diagram of one embodiment of a process to use queryresults from a broad-base search domain to ranks query results fromother search domains.

FIG. 10 is a flow chart of one embodiment of a process to rank types ofbroad-base search domain results and use the ranked broad-base types torank results from other search domains.

FIG. 11 is a block diagram of one embodiment of a deep link crawler thatindexes deep links from multiple deep links.

FIG. 12 is a block diagram of one embodiment of a deep link searchservice that performs a query search using a deep link index.

FIG. 13 is a block diagram of one embodiment of a deep link presentationmodule that receives and presents a deep link as part of a query result.

FIG. 14 is a block diagram of one embodiment of a proximity searchmodule that performs a query search using a proximity scoring function.

FIG. 15 is a block diagram of one embodiment of a scoring module thatscores an object using an ordered quadratic proximity function.

FIG. 16 is a block diagram of one embodiment of a broad-base rankermodule that uses query results from a broad-base search domain to ranksquery results from other search domains.

FIG. 17 is a block diagram of one embodiment of a ranker module thatranks types of broad-base search domain results and use the rankedbroad-base types to rank results from other search domains.

FIG. 18 illustrates one example of a typical computer system, which maybe used in conjunction with the embodiments described herein.

FIG. 19 shows an example of a data processing system, which may be usedwith one embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

A method and apparatus of a device that performs a search using a deeplink index is described. In the following description, numerous specificdetails are set forth to provide thorough explanation of embodiments ofthe present invention. It will be apparent, however, to one skilled inthe art, that embodiments of the present invention may be practicedwithout these specific details. In other instances, well-knowncomponents, structures, and techniques have not been shown in detail inorder not to obscure the understanding of this description.

Reference in the specification to “one embodiment” or “an embodiment”means that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic describedin connection with the embodiment can be included in at least oneembodiment of the invention. The appearances of the phrase “in oneembodiment” in various places in the specification do not necessarilyall refer to the same embodiment.

In the following description and claims, the terms “coupled” and“connected,” along with their derivatives, may be used. It should beunderstood that these terms are not intended as synonyms for each other.“Coupled” is used to indicate that two or more elements, which may ormay not be in direct physical or electrical contact with each other,co-operate or interact with each other. “Connected” is used to indicatethe establishment of communication between two or more elements that arecoupled with each other.

The processes depicted in the figures that follow, are performed byprocessing logic that comprises hardware (e.g., circuitry, dedicatedlogic, etc.), software (such as is run on a general-purpose computersystem or a dedicated machine), or a combination of both. Although theprocesses are described below in terms of some sequential operations, itshould be appreciated that some of the operations described may beperformed in different order. Moreover, some operations may be performedin parallel rather than sequentially.

The terms “server,” “client,” and “device” are intended to refergenerally to data processing systems rather than specifically to aparticular form factor for the server, client, and/or device.

A method and apparatus of a device that performs a search using a deeplink index is described. In one embodiment, the device crawls web sitesand/or other objects accessible over a network to index deep links,where a deep link is a reference to a location within an application. Inone embodiment, the device receives a set of seed objects that is usedto start the crawling process. In this embodiment, the seed objects areweb sites and/or other objects accessible over a network associated withapplications that are submitted during an approval process for thatapplication. For each object in the set of seed objects, the deviceretrieves the object and analyzes the object for deep links. If theobject includes a deep link, the device indexes the deep link in a deeplink index. In one embodiment, the device can index deep linkssupporting a variety of applications using different schema.

In one embodiment, with the deep link index, a search service can usethis index to serve queries. In this embodiment, a device receives aquery from a client and searches the deep link index to determine a setof results for the query. In one embodiment, the set of results includesa deep link as one of the results. The device sends the set of resultsback to the client. On the client, a user can select the deep link,where the corresponding application is launched and brings theapplication to location referenced by the deep link.

The set of results received by the client is a ranked set of results,where some results are ranked higher than others. In one embodiment, adevice scores each of the results using a proximity scoring function. Inthis embodiment, the proximity scoring function scores each results(e.g. web page or other object accessible through a network) based onthe distance and ordering between terms in the query. A match for querycan include a span of terms that include terms not found in the queryand can have the query terms in order or out of order. In oneembodiment, the proximity scoring function is a blend between a spanfrequency function (1/(1+x)), where x is the distance between thematching terms, and an in-order quadratic weighted function (1/(x²+α).

In a further embodiment, a device performs a query search using afederated search that performs the query search using multiple differentsearch indices. In this embodiment, the device receives a query from aclient and performs a query search using multiple search indices and abroad-base search index. The multiple search indices can includespecialized search indices, such as maps, online encyclopedia, media,sites, and/or other types of specialized search index that are used tosearch specialized search domains. The broad-base search index is anindex covers a number of different types of search domains. The devicereceives a first set of results from the multiple search indices and asecond set of results from the broad-base search index. Each of theresults in the second set of results is scored and the second set ofresults is ranked. In one embodiment, the device determines a searchdomain type for each of the results in the second set of results. Usingthe domain types and the results scores for the second set of results,the device determines which of the search domains are ranked higher inthe second set of results. The device additionally uses thisdetermination to increase a ranking score of results in the first set ofresults from search domain that are higher ranked and decrease resultsfor the first set of results that are lower ranked. For example and inone embodiment, if for a query, the broad-base search domain returns andranks results for movies higher than other results, the device wouldboost the scores of the results from the media search domain.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of one embodiment of a system 100 that indexesweb pages with deep links states for use in a search index and searchservice. In one embodiment, the system includes device 102 that iscoupled to websites 106 and a deep link search index 108. Furthermore,the deep link search index 108 is coupled to a search engine 110 thatincludes a deep link search service 112. In one embodiment, the deeplink crawler 104 crawls the website 106 (and possibly other objectsaccessible via a network, such as files, media, and/or other objects)for deep links. In this embodiment, a deep link is a link thatreferences a location in an application, such as a mobile application.In addition, the deep link search service 112 receives queries from thedevice(s) 114 and performs a query search using the deep link searchindex 108.

FIG. 2 is an illustration of one embodiment of a web page 200 with adeep link 202. In FIG. 2, the web page includes a deep link 202 thatreferences a location in an application. In one embodiment, the deeplink 202 has the format:app_id://location/info  (1)In this embodiment, the deep link 202 is a Uniform Resource Identifier(URI), where the app_id is the application identifier, location is alocation within the application, and info is further information that isused by the application to identify the location within the application.In one embodiment, the application identifier is known as a schema.There are many different kinds of application identifiers that arepossible, such application identifiers for Twitter, YouTube, eBay,Netflix, Quora, Starbucks, Pinterest, Yelp, Etsy, and otherapplications. A problem, however, is that each application has their ownformat for the deep link. For example and in one embodiment, a Twitterdeep link is “twitter://location/ . . . ” and a YouTube deep link is“youtube://location/ . . . ”. Instead of letting the user understand ordetermine how to use the deep link, the deep link crawler as describedin FIG. 1, crawls the web or other objects to index the discovered deeplinks.

Returning to FIG. 1, the deep link crawler 104 crawls the websites 106and/or other objects, referred to as an object, accessible via a networkto discover content that is referenced by a deep link. In oneembodiment, for each object accessed by the deep link crawler 104, thedeep link crawler 104 analyzes the object to determine if that objectincludes one or more deep links. If the object includes a deep link, thedeep link crawler 104 indexes the deep link. In one embodiment, the deeplink crawler 104 indexes the deep link by storing the applicationidentifier and the deep link (e.g., the URL for the deep link). Indexingthe deep link is further described in FIG. 3 below.

Furthermore, and in one embodiment, a search engine 110 includes a deeplink search service 114. In this embodiment, the deep link searchservice 114 receives a query from one of the devices 114 and performs aquery search using the received query with the deep link search index.The deep link search service 114 gathers a set of results that includesone of more deep links and returns the set of results to the device 114.Performing a search query using the deep link index 108 is furtherdescribed in FIG. 4 below.

FIG. 3 is a flow diagram of one embodiment of a process 300 to indexdeep links from multiple deep links. In one embodiment, process 300 isperformed by a deep link crawler that index deep links from multipledeep links, such as the deep link crawler 104 as described above inFIG. 1. In FIG. 3, process 300 begins by receiving a set of seed objectsat block 302. In one embodiment, the set of seed objects is a set ofreferences to objects accessible by a network. In this embodiment, theseed objects are web sites and/or other objects accessible over anetwork associated with applications that are submitted during anapproval process for that application. Process 300 uses the set of seedobjects to start the crawling. In one embodiment, the one of the seedobjects is a web page. At block 304, process 300 sets the set of seedobjects as the group of objects, where the group of objects is theobject group that process 300 uses to search for deep links.

Process 300 executes a programming loop (blocks 306-318) to analyze eachobject in the group of objects for deep links. At block 308, process 300retrieves the object. Process 300 determines if the object includes adeep link at block 310. In one embodiment, the object is a web page andthe deep link is a reference to a location in an application. In oneembodiment, the deep link is the deep link as described in FIG. 2 above.If the object does not have any deep links, execution proceeds to block312 below. If the object does include one or more deep links, process300 indexes each of the deep links at block 314. In one embodiment,process 300 adds each of the deep links from the object into the deeplink index. In this embodiment, process 300 extracts metadata for thedeep link and adds this metadata to the deep link index for this deeplink. For example and in one embodiment, process 300 extracts metadatafrom metadata stored in an schema.org structured markup. In a furtherembodiment, process 300 can index deep links for different applicationsand/or using different schema. For example and in one embodiment,process 300 indexes deep links for Twitter, YouTube, eBay, Netflix,Quora, Starbucks, Pinterest, Yelp, Etsy, and other applications, whereeach of these applications have a different schema. For example and inone embodiment, a Twitter deep link is “twitter://location/ . . . ” anda YouTube deep link is “youtube://location/ . . . ”. In this example,“twitter:” and “youtube:” schema, which process 300 indexes. Process 300further indexes the deep links for other applications that havedifferent schema by maintaining an association between a schema and therelevant application.

By building the deep link index, process 300 is building an index forcontent inside the application that corresponds to the deep link. Forexample, if the object is a review of a business in a web page for areview web site and this web page includes a deep link to an applicationcorresponding to the web site, process 300 indexes this deep link forthe review of the business in this application. At block 312, process300 determines if this object includes references to other objects thancan be crawled. In one embodiment, a reference to another object is auniform resource locator (URL) to another web page, file, or otherobject accessible by a URL. If the object does not include references toother objects, execution proceeds to block 306 above. If the object doesinclude references to other objects that can be crawled, process 300adds the references to these objects in the group of objects. Theprocessing loop ends at block 318.

FIG. 4 is a flow diagram of one embodiment of a process 400 to perform aquery search using a deep link index. In one embodiment, process 400 isperformed by a remote application state search service to perform aquery search using a deep link search service, such as the deep linksearch service 112 as described above in FIG. 1. In FIG. 4, process 400begins by receiving a query from a client at block 402. In oneembodiment, a query is a search string that is input by user in anapplication and sent to the search service as described above. At block404, process 400 searches the deep link search index using the query. Inone embodiment, process 400 determines if there are any deep links thatmatch the query. Process 400 determines a set of results for the queryat block of 406. In one embodiment, the set of results includes one ormore deep links that match some or all of the text in the query. Atblock 408, process 400 ranks the set of results. In one embodiment,process 400 ranks the set of results by determining the score for eachof the results and ranking these results using those scores. At block410, process 400 combines a set of results with results from othersearch domains. In one embodiment, if the search is a federated search,where the same query is used to search different indices, process 400combines results from other search domains with the set of resultsdetermined using the application state index. For example and in oneembodiment, the query may be used to search the deep link search index,a general web search index, and/or different indices (e.g., media index,application store index, maps index, online encyclopedia index, and/oranother type of index). At block 412, process 400 returns a set ofranked results, along with the other results generated in block 410, tothe client.

FIG. 5 is a flow diagram of one embodiment of a process 500 to receiveand present a deep link as part of a query result. In one embodiment,process 500 is performed by a device to receive and present anapplication state as part of the query result, such as one of thedevices 114 described in FIG. 1 above. In FIG. 5, process 500 begins bysending a query to a deep link search service at block 502. In oneembodiment, the query can be a search string that is input by user inthe application and sent to the search service. In this embodiment, theinput can be entered by text, spoken word, automatically generated,received from a coupled device (e.g., a smart watch coupled to aportable device), and/or some other way to enter a search string. Atblock 504, process 500 receives a set of results, where the resultsinclude a deep link. In one embodiment, the set of results are rankedwith the top-ranked result being a top hit. At block 506, process 500presents the deep link in a user interface. In this embodiment, the deeplink includes a deep link title, summary, and an indication of an iconcorresponding to the application for this deep link. In response to thedeep link being selected, process 500 launches the correspondingapplication using the selected deep link. In one embodiment, because thedeep link is a location within an application, the launched applicationpresents the user with the application at this application location. Forexample and in one embodiment, if the deep link is a review of a localrestaurant for a review type application, process 500 launches thereview type application with the local restaurant location within theapplication. In this example, the review type application would belaunched such that the user interface presented to the user is the oneof the local restaurant in the review type application. In oneembodiment, if the application is not installed on the device, process500 can download the application from a remote source, such as anapplication store, webpage, or other remote server. In this embodiment,process 500 would install the application and launch the applicationusing the selected deep link.

In one embodiment, in addition to launching the application, process 500presents a breadcrumb user interface object that indicates to the userhow to return to the set of results displayed at block 506. At block510, process 500 presents a breadcrumb user interface object. In oneembodiment, the breadcrumb user interface object is a banner that isadjacent to the user interface for the launched application. In oneembodiment, the breadcrumb user interface object is above the launchedapplication user interface. The breadcrumb user interface objectindicates to the user that the user can return to the set of resultsfrom the application. In one embodiment, the breadcrumb user interfaceobject is presented by the operating system of the device, which meansthat an application does not need to be modified in order to return tothe set of results. Process 500 returns to the presentation of the setof results (including the deep link) upon selection of the breadcrumbuser interface object at block 512.

As described above, a search service (e.g., the deep link search service112) scores each result in a set of results for a query search todetermine how these results should be ranked. In one embodiment, asearch service ranks results that are scored higher as being morerelevant and lower scored results as being less relevant for the query.FIG. 6 is a flow diagram of one embodiment of a process 600 to perform aquery search using a proximity scoring function. In one embodiment,search engine performs process 600, such as the deep link search service112 as described in FIG. 1 above. In another embodiment, a differenttype of search service can perform process 600 (e.g., a general websearch service, a specialized search service, and/or another type ofsearch service). In FIG. 6, process 600 begins by receiving a query froma client at block 602. In one embodiment, a query is a search stringthat is input by user in the application and sent to the search serviceas described above. At block 604, process 600 searches the deep linkindex using the query. In one embodiment, process 600 determines ifthere are any deep links that match the query and determines a set ofresults for the query. In another embodiment, process 600 searchesanother search index using this query (e.g., general web search index,and/or a different search index). In one embodiment, the set of resultsincludes one or more deep links or other objects (e.g., web pages, etc.)that match some or all of the text in the query. In another embodiment,the set of results may not include a deep link.

At block 606, process 600 scores the set of results using aproximity-scoring function. While in one embodiment, process 600 scoresthe sets results using the proximity-scoring function, in alternateembodiments, the set of results are scored using one or more additionalfunctions. For example and in one embodiment, the set of results can bescores using a zone boost. In one embodiment, the proximity scoringfunction scores the result where each results includes two or more termsfrom a query that are within a specified distance. In one embodiment, aterm is a word, phrase, or another language construct. In oneembodiment, the distance between the terms can be characters or wordsand is used to constrain the matching of the terms for a result. Inanother embodiment, the proximity-scoring function imposes an order onthe result. For example and in one embodiment, a query that is “whitetruck” would score the result higher for strings “white Ford truck,”“white slightly used truck,” but score lower “truck with white paint”(out of order) and “white house that includes a lawn with a truck”(longer distance between words). In one embodiment, the proximity of theterms in a document implies a relationship between the terms. In thisembodiment, creators of object being searched may try to formulatesentences that contain a single idea, or cluster of related ideas withinneighboring sentences or organized into paragraphs. Thus, there may bean inherent or relatively high probability within this object structurethat terms used together or in close proximity are related. On the otherhand, when two words are on the opposite ends of a document or web page,the probability of a relationship between the words is relatively weak.By ranking results where the words are within the specified maximumproximity, or distance, the results are assumed to be of higherrelevance than the results where the words are scattered. The proximityscoring is further described in FIG. 7 below.

At block 608, process 600 ranks the set of results using the resultscores determined above. At block 610, process 600 combines a set ofresults with results from other search domains. In one embodiment, ifthe search is a federated search, where the same query is used to searchdifferent indices, process 600 combines results from other searchdomains with the set of results determined using the application stateindex. For example and in one embodiment, the query may be used tosearch the application state index, a general web search index, and/ordifferent indices (e.g., media index, application store index, mapsindex, online encyclopedia index, and/or another type of index). Atblock 612, process 600 returns a set of ranked results, along with theother results generated in block 610, to the client.

FIG. 7 is a flow diagram of one embodiment of a process 700 to score anobject using an ordered quadratic proximity function. In one embodiment,process 600 performs process 700 to score an object using an orderedquadratic proximity function. In FIG. 7, process 700 begins byperforming a processing loop (blocks 702-718) for each object in the setof results to score that object using the proximity function. At block704, process 700 identifies the matches in the object. In oneembodiment, process 700 identifies a match by identifying the terms ofthe query in the object.

For each match in the object, process 700 performs a processing loop(blocks 706-718) to score each match in the object. At block 708,process 700 identifies the spans in the zone matching the query. In oneembodiment, a span is a set of terms that include the terms from thequery with zero or more additional terms. A span can include the queryterms in order or out-of-order. For example and in one embodiment, ifthe query is “TripAdvisor Bardessono,” a span matching this query couldbe “TripAdvisor—Bardessono,” or “Bardessono, rated 4.5 out of 5 onTripAdvisor.” In one embodiment, there are can be different types ofmatches. If the query is “TripAdvisor Bardessono,” an exact match forone of the terms can be “TripAdvisor” in the application name field, aprefix match of “TripAdvisor LLC” in the develop name field, an in-ordermatch in the title field of “TripAdvisor—Bardessono,” and out-of ordermatch in the body field for the span “Bardessono, rated 4.5 out of 5 onTripAdvisor.”

Process 700 further performs another processing loop (blocks 710-718) toscore each span. At block 712, process 700 identifies the zones for thespan. In one embodiment, a zone is segment of an object. In oneembodiment, instead of analyzing and scoring each field of an object(e.g., application name, developer, title, description, keywords,headers (e.g., H1, H2, and/or H3), body, caption, and/or other fields ofthe object), the fields are collapsed into a smaller set of zones. Forexample and in one embodiment, process 700 collapses the applicationname, developer, and title fields into zone 1; description, keywords,and a top-level header into zone 2; the two next level headers into zone3; and body and caption into zone 4. In this embodiment, collapsing thefields into zones reduces over-fitting and model complexity andsignificantly improves performance. For example and in one embodiment,applying zoned ranking to an 80-field index can give a speed increasefrom 103 ms to 1.35 ms.

At block 714, process 700 applies an ordered quadratic proximity scoringfunction to the span. In one embodiment, the ordered quadratic proximityscoring function scores spans that have in-order matches higher thanout-of-order matches for the query terms. In addition, the orderedquadratic proximity scoring function scores the span based on thedistance squared between terms. For example and in one embodiment, forthe query “TripAdvisor Bardessono,” the span with the terms“TripAdvisor—Bardessono” will score higher because the distance betweenthe query terms is small (one term) and the match is an in order match.In another example and embodiment, the span “TripAdvisor ranks the winecountry hotel Bardessono” would score higher because the span is an inorder match, but lower because the distance between the terms (fiveterms) is larger. As a further example and embodiment, the span“Bardessono, rated 4.5 out of 5 on TripAdvisor” is a lower scoring matchbecause this is an out-of-order match and the distance is large (6-7terms, depending if punctuation is counted as a separate term).

In one embodiment, the ordered quadratic scoring function is a blendbetween a span frequency function (1/(1+x)), where x is the distancebetween the matching terms, and an in-order quadratic weighted function(1/(x²+α). In one embodiment, the ordered quadratic scoring function hasthe form as illustrated in Equation (1) below:

$f = \frac{\left( {1 - b} \right) + \left( \frac{b*\beta}{{ord}^{2} + \alpha} \right)}{distance}$where b is a tuning parameter to weight the contribution for the spanfrequency function, a is a tuning parameter to tune the effect of thedistance, β is tuning parameter that tunes the effect of the order, ordis the order value, and distance is the distance between the terms. Inone embodiment, the distance is the distance between the first and lastterm in the span. In one embodiment, a smaller β value decreases thecontribution of the in-order quadratic weighted function to the overallfunction score. In addition, β has a value of 1 for in-order matches anda value less than one for out-of-order matches.

At block 714, process 700 other scoring functions to the span. In oneembodiment, the additional scoring functions can be a zone boost, prefixboost, and exact match boost. In one embodiment, a match of the queryterms in zone may be more relevant that a query match in another zone.For example and in one embodiment, a match of the query terms in thezone that includes the title or higher-level header may be given a zoneboost because a match in this zone may indicate a more relevant matchthan a match in a zone that includes the body of the object. In oneembodiment, a prefix boost is applied to contiguous matches of the queryterms from beginning of a zone. In a further embodiment, an exact boostis applied to matches in a zone, if the matches entirely cover the zone.Process 700 adds the span score to the object score at block 716. In oneembodiment, process 700 collects each spans score into an overall objectscore. The three processing loops end at block 718. At block 720,process 700 returns the object scores in the set of results.

In one embodiment, the deep link search index is a broad-base index thatcovers many different types of content. In this embodiment, what typesof results and the scores for the these result that come for the deeplink search index can be used to rank results from other search domains.FIG. 8 is a block diagram of one embodiment of a federator 802 thatperforms a multi-domain search using results from one search domain torank results from other search domains. In one embodiment, the federator802 includes a blender/ranker 806, and multiple search domains 808A-G.In one embodiment, the maps search domain 804A is a search domain thatincludes information related to a geographical map. In this embodiment,the maps information can include information about places, addresses,places, businesses, places of interest, or other type of informationrelating to maps. In another embodiment, the maps information can alsoinclude information related to places of interest, such as openinghours, reviews and ratings, contact information, directions, and/orphotographs related to the place. The maps search domain 808A queriesinformation from a maps data source 810A. In one embodiment, the mediasearch domain 804B is a search domain related to media. In oneembodiment, the media search domain 804B includes information related tomusic, books, video, classes, spoken word, podcasts, radio, and/or othertypes of media. In a further embodiment, the media search domain 804Bcan include information related to applications that can run on thedevice, such as device 102, smartphone 114 and tablet 116 as describedabove in FIG. 1. In one embodiment, the media search domain is a mediastore that includes different types of media available for purchase(e.g., music, books, video, classes, spoken word, podcasts, radio,applications, and/or other types of media). The media search domain 808Bqueries information from a media data source 810B.

In one embodiment, the wiki search domain 804C is an online encyclopediasearch domain. For example and in one embodiment, wiki search domain804C can be WIKIPEDIA. The wiki search domain 808C queries informationfrom a wiki data source 810C. In one embodiment, the sites search domain804D is a search domain of websites. For example and in one embodiment,the sites search domain 804D includes business, governmental, public,and/or private websites such as “apple.com,” “whitehouse.gov,”“yahoo.com,” etc. The sites search domain 808D queries information froma sites data source 810D. In one embodiment, the other search domain804E is a set of other search domains that can be accessed by thefederator 802 (e.g., a news search domain). The other search domain 808Equeries information from other data source(s) 810E. In one embodiment,the feedback completion domain 804F is a search index that is based onquery feedback collected by browsers running on various devices. In oneembodiment, the feedback completion domain 804F includes a feedbackindex that maps queries to results based on the collected queryfeedback. The feedback search domain 808 queries information from thefeedback data source 810F (e.g., the feedback search index).

In a further embodiment, the deep link search domain 808G is searchdomain that include an index of objects with deep links. In oneembodiment, the deep link search domain 808G includes the deep linksearch index 108 as described in FIG. 1 above. In one embodiment, thedeep link search domain is a broad-base search domain in which thesearch domain covers many different types of possible results. Forexample and in one embodiment, the deep link search domain couldincludes results such as media results (e.g., movies, videos, music,books, and/or other types of media), locations (e.g., business,services, places of interest, and/or other types of locations), onlineencyclopedia entries (e.g.,), results of particular sites (e.g., sitesthat are also accessible by the sites 808D search domain), and/or othertypes of results (e.g., entries regarding persons, places, and/orthings). In this example, the results may not be the same result foundin the other search domains, but these results have a type that isassociated with the other search domains.

In addition, the blender/ranker 806 receives the results from themultiple search domains 808A-G and ranks these results. In oneembodiment, the blender/ranker 806 uses the types of results from thedeep link search domain 808G to rank the results from the other searchdomains 808A-F. For example and in one embodiment, if for a query, thedeep link search domain returns and ranks results for movies higher thanother results, the blender/ranker 806 would boost the scores of theresults from the media search domain 808B. As another example andembodiment, if for the query, the deep link search domain returns andranks results for online encyclopedia entries higher than other results,the blender/ranker 806 would boost the scores of the results from thewiki search domain 808C. Using one search domain to rank results fromother search domains is further described in the FIGS. 9 and 10 below.

FIG. 9 is a flow diagram of one embodiment of a process 900 to use queryresults from a broad-base search domain to rank query results from othersearch domains. In one embodiment, process 900 is performed by ablender/ranker to use query results from a broad-base search domain torank query results from other search domains, such as the blender/ranker806 as described above in FIG. 8. In FIG. 9, process 900 begins byreceiving a query from a client at block 902. In one embodiment, thequery can be a search string that is input by a user in an applicationand sent to the blender/ranker. In this embodiment, the input can beentered by text, spoken word, automatically generated, received from acoupled device (e.g., a smart watch coupled to a portable device),and/or some other way to enter a search string. At block 904, process900 applies the query to multiple search domains and to a broad-basesearch domain. In one embodiment, process 900 sends the query to themaps, media, wiki, sites, and/or other search domains, where each of thesearch domains determines a set of results for the query, such as searchdomain 808A-F as described in FIG. 8 above. In addition, process 900sends the query to a broad-base search domain, where the broad-basesearch domain covers many different types of possible results. In oneembodiment, the broad-base search domain is the deep link search domainas described in FIG. 8 above. In another embodiment, the broad-basesearch domain is another search domain that covers many different typesof possible results (e.g., feedback search domain, another general webpage search domain, and/or other types of search domain).

At block 906, process 900 receives a first set of results from themultiple search domains and a second set of results from the broad-basesearch domain. In one embodiment, one or more of the search domains fromthe multiple search returns one or more results for the query. Inaddition, process 900 receives a second set of results from thebroad-base domain, where the second set of results includes results thathave types analogous to the types of results in the other searchdomains. For example and in one embodiment, the broad-base search domainincludes results such as media results (e.g., movies, videos, music,books, and/or other types of media), locations (e.g., business,services, places of interest, and/or other types of locations), onlineencyclopedia entries (e.g., entries regarding persons, places, and/orthings), results of particular sites (e.g., sites that are alsoaccessible by the sites 808D search domain), and/or other types ofresults.

Process 900 ranks the first set of results using the second set ofresults at block 908. In one embodiment, process 900 determines thetypes of results for the second set of results. For example and in oneembodiment, process 900 determines a search domain for each of theresults in the second set of results. Process 900 further ranks thesearch domain types using the scores for the each of results in thesecond set of results. With the ranked search domain types, process 900ranks the first set of results using the ranked search domain types.Ranking the first set of results using the second set of results isfurther described in FIG. 10 below. At block 910, process 900 returnsthe ranked first set of results. In one embodiment, process 900 returnsthe ranked first set of results to the client that sent the query.

As described above, process 900 ranks the first set of results using thesecond set of results. FIG. 10 is a flow chart of one embodiment of aprocess 1000 to rank types of broad-base search domain results and usethe ranked broad-base types to rank results from other search domains.In one embodiment, process 900 performs process 1000 to rank types ofbroad-base search domain results and use the ranked broad-base types torank results from other search domains. In FIG. 10, process 1000 beginsby receiving the first and second set of results at block 1002. At block1004, process 1000 receives a set of ranking scores for the second setof results. In one embodiment, the broad-base search domain scores theresults in the second set of results to generate the ranking set ofscores. In another embodiment, the ranking scores are generated by thebroad-base search domain and further adjusted by the blender/ranker.

At block 1006, process 1000 determines a search domain type for each ofthe second set of results. In one embodiment, each of the search domaintypes corresponds to a type of one of the multiple search domains usedto generate the first set of results. Alternatively, the search domaintype may not correspond to a type of one of the multiple search domainsused to generate the first set of results. Process 1000 ranks the searchdomain types using ranking scores at block 1008. In one embodiment, foreach of the results in the second set of results, process 1000 computesa domain score based on the second set of results and domain types todetermine which of the search domain types have higher ranked results.For example and in one embodiment, the second set of results includesresults A, B, and C, where A scores highest, B scores in the middle, andC scores the lowest and A, B, C have domain type of media, wiki, andmaps. In this example, the domain type scores would be highest formedia, followed by wiki, and maps.

At block 1010, process 1000 ranks the first set of results using theranked search domain types. In one embodiment, each of the results inthe second set of results has a ranking score that is generated from thecorresponding search domain. In this embodiment, process 1000 increasesthe ranking score for a result that corresponds to a search domain thathas a higher ranked search domain type. Furthermore, process 1000decreases the ranking score for a result that corresponds to a searchdomain that has a lower ranked search domain type. For example and inone embodiment, if for a query, the second set of results has resultsfrom the media search domain that score higher, maps search domain scoremedium, and the wiki search domain score lower, process 1000 wouldincrease the ranking scores of results in the first set of results fromthe media search domain, decrease the ranking scores of results in thefirst set of results from the wiki search domain, and not adjust theranking scores of results in the first set of results from the mapssearch domain.

FIG. 11 is a block diagram of one embodiment of a deep link crawler 104that indexes deep links from multiple deep links. In one embodiment, thedeep link crawler 104 includes a receive seed object module 1102,retrieve object module 1104, analyze object module 1106, index deep linkmodule 1108, and add additional objects module 1110. The receive seedobject module 1102 receive the references for the seed objects asdescribed in FIG. 3, block 302 above. The retrieve object module 1104retrieves the object as described in FIG. 3, block 308 above. Theanalyze object module 1106 analyze the object for deep links asdescribed in FIG. 3, block 310 above. The index deep link module 1108indexes the deep link as described in FIG. 3, block 314 above. The addadditional objects module 1110 adds the references for the additionalobjects as described in FIG. 3, block 316 above.

FIG. 12 is a block diagram of one embodiment of a deep link searchservice 112 that performs a query search using a deep link index. In oneembodiment, the deep link search service 112 includes a receive querymodule 1202, search deep link index module 1204, determine resultsmodule 1206, rank module 1208, combine results module 1210, and returnresults module 1212. In one embodiment, the receive query module 1202receives the query as described in FIG. 4, block 402 above. The searchdeep link index module 1204 searches the deep link index as described inFIG. 4, block 404 above. The query results module 1206 determines theset of results as described in FIG. 4, block 406 above. The rank resultsmodule 1208 ranks the results as described in FIG. 4, block 408 above.The combine results module 1210 combines the results form other searchdomains as described in FIG. 4, block 410 above. The return resultsmodule 1212 returns the results as described in FIG. 4, block 412 above.

FIG. 13 is a block diagram of one embodiment of a deep link presentationmodule 1300 that receives and presents a deep link as part of a queryresult. In one embodiment, the deep link presentation module 1300includes a send query module 1302, receive results module 1304, presentresults module 1306, launch application module 1308, present breadcrumbmodule 1310, and return module 1312. In one embodiment, the send querymodule 1302 sends the query as described in FIG. 5, block 502 above. Thereceive results module 1304 receive the set of results as described inFIG. 5, block 504 above. The present results module 1306 presents theresults as described in FIG. 5, block 506 above. The launch applicationmodule 1308 launches the application as described in FIG. 5, block 508above. The present breadcrumb module 1310 presents the breadcrumb userinterface object as described in FIG. 5, block 510 above. The returnmodule 1312 returns to the set of results as described in FIG. 5, block512 above.

FIG. 14 is a block diagram of one embodiment of a proximity searchmodule 1400 that performs a query search using a proximity scoringfunction. In one embodiment, the proximity search module 1400 includes areceive query module 1402, determine results module 1404, score module1406, rank module 1408, combine results module 1410, and return resultsmodule 1412. In one embodiment, the receive query module 1402 receivesthe query as described in FIG. 6, block 602 above. The query resultsmodule 1404 determines the set of results as described in FIG. 6, block604 above. The score module 1406 scores the results using the proximityfunction as described in FIG. 6, block 606 above. The rank resultsmodule 1408 ranks the results as described in FIG. 6, block 608 above.The combine results module 1410 combines the results from other searchdomains as described in FIG. 6, block 610 above. The return resultsmodule 1412 returns the results as described in FIG. 6, block 612 above.

FIG. 15 is a block diagram of one embodiment of a score module 1500 thatscores an object using an ordered quadratic proximity function. In oneembodiment, score module 1406 includes an identify zone module 1502,identify spans 1504, apply proximity module 1506, other scoring module1508, add span score module 1510, and return score module 1512. In oneembodiment, the identify zone module 1502 identifies the zone in theobject as described in FIG. 7, block 704 above. The identify spans 1504identifies the spans in the object as described in FIG. 7, block 708above. The apply proximity module 1506 applies the proximity function asdescribed in FIG. 7, block 712 above. The other scoring module 1508applies other scoring functions to the object as described in FIG. 7,block 714 above. The add span score module 1510 adds the span score tothe object score as described in FIG. 7, block 716 above. The returnscore module 1512 returns the object score as described in FIG. 7, block720 above.

FIG. 16 is a block diagram of one embodiment of a broad-base rankermodule 1600 that uses query results from a broad-base search domain toranks query results from other search domains. In one embodiment, thebroad-base ranker module 1600 includes a receive query module 1602,apply query module 1604, receive results module 1606, ranker module1608, and return results module 1610. In one embodiment, the receivequery module 1602 receives the query as described in FIG. 9, block 902above. The apply query module 1604 applies the query to multiple searchdomains as described in FIG. 9, block 904 above. The receive resultsmodule 1606 receives the two sets of results as described in FIG. 9,block 906 above. The ranker module 1608 ranks the first set of resultsas described in FIG. 9, block 908 above. The return results module 1610returns the ranked results as described in FIG. 9, block 910 above.

FIG. 17 is a block diagram of one embodiment of a ranker module 1608that ranks types of broad-base search domain results and use the rankedbroad-base types to rank results from other search domains. In oneembodiment, the ranker module 1608 includes a receive results module1702, receive scores module 1704, search domain type module 1706, ranksearch domain types module 1708, and rank results 1710. In oneembodiment, the receive results module 1702 receives the results asdescribed in FIG. 10, block 1002 above. The receive scores module 1704receives the scores as described in FIG. 10, block 1004 above. Thesearch domain type module 1706 determines a search domain as describedin FIG. 10, block 1006 above. The rank search domain types module 1708ranks the search domain types as described in FIG. 10, block 1008 above.The rank results 1710 ranks the first set of results as described inFIG. 10, block 1010 above.

Embodiments described above have illustrated a first device receiving aquery input, sending the query, receiving query results, and launchingan application on the device. In alternate embodiments, the first device(e.g., a smartphone or another type of portable device) is coupled to asecond portable device (e.g., a wearable device such as a smart watch oranother type of wearable or portable device) through a personal areanetwork, such as Bluetooth. In these embodiments, the second portabledevice can perform any of the above actions with regards to thefulfilling of the query search. For example and in one embodiment, thesecond portable device can receive the inputted query from a user by avariety of means (e.g., input text, gestures, voice, and/or another typeof input), where the first device sends the query to the search service.Alternatively, the second device could display the query results, wherethe first device receives the query results and relays these results tothe second device. In a further embodiment, a display and selection of aresult can launch an application on the second device. If theapplication is not installed on the second device, this application canbe downloaded and installed on the second prior to the applicationlaunch. For example and in one embodiment, a result can be displayed oneither the first or second device and, upon selection of this result, anapplication is launched on the second device. Alternatively, the resultcan be displayed on the second device and launched on the first device.

As a further example and embodiment, a smartwatch is coupled to asmartphone via a Bluetooth connection. In this embodiment, either thesmartphone or smartwatch receives a query input by a user. If the queryis received on the smartwatch, the query is sent to the smartphone. Thesmartphone sends the query to the search service, which can be a localor remote search service. The smartphone receives the search results,where the results can be displayed on the smartphone, smartwatch, and/ora combination thereof. Upon selection of one of the results on either ofthe smartwatch or the smartphone, an application can be launched on thesmartphone, smartwatch, and/or a combination thereof. If the applicationis not installed on the relevant device, the application can bedownloaded and installed on that device prior to being launched.

The present disclosure recognizes that the use of such personalinformation data, in the present technology, can be used to the benefitof users. For example, the personal information data can be used todeliver targeted content that is of greater interest to the user.Accordingly, use of such personal information data enables calculatedcontrol of the delivered content. Further, other uses for personalinformation data that benefit the user are also contemplated by thepresent disclosure.

The present disclosure further contemplates that the entitiesresponsible for the collection, analysis, disclosure, transfer, storage,or other use of such personal information data will comply withwell-established privacy policies and/or privacy practices. Inparticular, such entities should implement and consistently use privacypolicies and practices that are generally recognized as meeting orexceeding industry or governmental requirements for maintaining personalinformation data private and secure. For example, personal informationfrom users should be collected for legitimate and reasonable uses of theentity and not shared or sold outside of those legitimate uses. Further,such collection should occur only after receiving the informed consentof the users. Additionally, such entities would take any needed stepsfor safeguarding and securing access to such personal information dataand ensuring that others with access to the personal information dataadhere to their privacy policies and procedures. Further, such entitiescan subject themselves to evaluation by third parties to certify theiradherence to widely accepted privacy policies and practices.

Despite the foregoing, the present disclosure also contemplatesembodiments in which users selectively block the use of, or access to,personal information data. That is, the present disclosure contemplatesthat hardware and/or software elements can be provided to prevent orblock access to such personal information data. For example, users canselect to not provide precise location information, but permit thetransfer of location zone information.

FIG. 18 shows one example of a data processing system 1800, which may beused with one embodiment of the present invention. For example, thesystem 1800 may be implemented including a device 102 or search engine110 as shown in FIG. 1. Note that while FIG. 18 illustrates variouscomponents of a computer system, it is not intended to represent anyparticular architecture or manner of interconnecting the components assuch details are not germane to the present invention. It will also beappreciated that network computers and other data processing systems orother consumer electronic devices, which have fewer components orperhaps more components, may also be used with the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 18, the computer system 1800, which is a form of a dataprocessing system, includes a bus 1803 which is coupled to amicroprocessor(s) 1805 and a ROM (Read Only Memory) 1807 and volatileRAM 1809 and a non-volatile memory 1811. The microprocessor 1805 mayinclude one or more CPU(s), GPU(s), a specialized processor, and/or acombination thereof. The microprocessor 1805 may retrieve theinstructions from the memories 1807, 1809, 1811 and execute theinstructions to perform operations described above. The bus 1803interconnects these various components together and also interconnectsthese components 1805, 1807, 1809, and 1811 to a display controller anddisplay device 1813 and to peripheral devices such as input/output (I/O)devices which may be mice, keyboards, modems, network interfaces,printers and other devices which are well known in the art. Typically,the input/output devices 1815 are coupled to the system throughinput/output controllers 1813. The volatile RAM (Random Access Memory)1809 is typically implemented as dynamic RAM (DRAM), which requirespower continually in order to refresh or maintain the data in thememory.

The mass storage 1811 is typically a magnetic hard drive or a magneticoptical drive or an optical drive or a DVD RAM or a flash memory orother types of memory systems, which maintain data (e.g. large amountsof data) even after power is removed from the system. Typically, themass storage 1811 will also be a random access memory although this isnot required. While FIG. 18 shows that the mass storage 1811 is a localdevice coupled directly to the rest of the components in the dataprocessing system, it will be appreciated that the present invention mayutilize a non-volatile memory which is remote from the system, such as anetwork storage device which is coupled to the data processing systemthrough a network interface such as a modem, an Ethernet interface or awireless network. The bus 1803 may include one or more buses connectedto each other through various bridges, controllers and/or adapters as iswell known in the art.

FIG. 19 shows an example of another data processing system 1900 whichmay be used with one embodiment of the present invention. For example,system 1900 may be implemented as a device 100 as shown in FIG. 1. Thedata processing system 1900 shown in FIG. 19 includes a processingsystem 1911, which may be one or more microprocessors, or which may be asystem on a chip integrated circuit, and the system also includes memory1901 for storing data and programs for execution by the processingsystem. The system 1900 also includes an audio input/output subsystem1905, which may include a microphone and a speaker for, for example,playing back music or providing telephone functionality through thespeaker and microphone.

A display controller and display device 1909 provide a visual userinterface for the user; this digital interface may include a graphicaluser interface which is similar to that shown on a Macintosh computerwhen running OS X operating system software, or Apple iPhone whenrunning the iOS operating system, etc. The system 1900 also includes oneor more wireless transceivers 1903 to communicate with another dataprocessing system, such as the system 1900 of FIG. 19. A wirelesstransceiver may be a WLAN transceiver, an infrared transceiver, aBluetooth transceiver, and/or a wireless cellular telephony transceiver.It will be appreciated that additional components, not shown, may alsobe part of the system 1900 in certain embodiments, and in certainembodiments fewer components than shown in FIG. 19 may also be used in adata processing system. The system 1900 further includes one or morecommunications ports 1917 to communicate with another data processingsystem, such as the system 1500 of FIG. 15. The communications port maybe a USB port, Firewire port, Bluetooth interface, etc.

The data processing system 1900 also includes one or more input devices1913, which are provided to allow a user to provide input to the system.These input devices may be a keypad or a keyboard or a touch panel or amulti touch panel. The data processing system 1900 also includes anoptional input/output device 1915 which may be a connector for a dock.It will be appreciated that one or more buses, not shown, may be used tointerconnect the various components as is well known in the art. Thedata processing system shown in FIG. 19 may be a handheld computer or apersonal digital assistant (PDA), or a cellular telephone with PDA likefunctionality, or a handheld computer which includes a cellulartelephone, or a media player, such as an iPod, or devices which combineaspects or functions of these devices, such as a media player combinedwith a PDA and a cellular telephone in one device or an embedded deviceor other consumer electronic devices. In other embodiments, the dataprocessing system 1900 may be a network computer or an embeddedprocessing device within another device, or other types of dataprocessing systems, which have fewer components or perhaps morecomponents than that shown in FIG. 19.

At least certain embodiments of the inventions may be part of a digitalmedia player, such as a portable music and/or video media player, whichmay include a media processing system to present the media, a storagedevice to store the media and may further include a radio frequency (RF)transceiver (e.g., an RF transceiver for a cellular telephone) coupledwith an antenna system and the media processing system. In certainembodiments, media stored on a remote storage device may be transmittedto the media player through the RF transceiver. The media may be, forexample, one or more of music or other audio, still pictures, or motionpictures.

The portable media player may include a media selection device, such asa click wheel input device on an iPod® or iPod Nano® media player fromApple, Inc. of Cupertino, Calif., a touch screen input device,pushbutton device, movable pointing input device or other input device.The media selection device may be used to select the media stored on thestorage device and/or the remote storage device. The portable mediaplayer may, in at least certain embodiments, include a display devicewhich is coupled to the media processing system to display titles orother indicators of media being selected through the input device andbeing presented, either through a speaker or earphone(s), or on thedisplay device, or on both display device and a speaker or earphone(s).Examples of a portable media player are described in published U.S. Pat.No. 7,345,671 and U.S. published patent number 2004/0224638, both ofwhich are incorporated herein by reference.

Portions of what was described above may be implemented with logiccircuitry such as a dedicated logic circuit or with a microcontroller orother form of processing core that executes program code instructions.Thus processes taught by the discussion above may be performed withprogram code such as machine-executable instructions that cause amachine that executes these instructions to perform certain functions.In this context, a “machine” may be a machine that converts intermediateform (or “abstract”) instructions into processor specific instructions(e.g., an abstract execution environment such as a “virtual machine”(e.g., a Java Virtual Machine), an interpreter, a Common LanguageRuntime, a high-level language virtual machine, etc.), and/or,electronic circuitry disposed on a semiconductor chip (e.g., “logiccircuitry” implemented with transistors) designed to executeinstructions such as a general-purpose processor and/or aspecial-purpose processor. Processes taught by the discussion above mayalso be performed by (in the alternative to a machine or in combinationwith a machine) electronic circuitry designed to perform the processes(or a portion thereof) without the execution of program code.

The present invention also relates to an apparatus for performing theoperations described herein. This apparatus may be specially constructedfor the required purpose, or it may comprise a general-purpose computerselectively activated or reconfigured by a computer program stored inthe computer. Such a computer program may be stored in a computerreadable storage medium, such as, but is not limited to, any type ofdisk including floppy disks, optical disks, CD-ROMs, andmagnetic-optical disks, read-only memories (ROMs), RAMs, EPROMs,EEPROMs, magnetic or optical cards, or any type of media suitable forstoring electronic instructions, and each coupled to a computer systembus.

A machine readable medium includes any mechanism for storing ortransmitting information in a form readable by a machine (e.g., acomputer). For example, a machine readable medium includes read onlymemory (“ROM”); random access memory (“RAM”); magnetic disk storagemedia; optical storage media; flash memory devices; etc.

An article of manufacture may be used to store program code. An articleof manufacture that stores program code may be embodied as, but is notlimited to, one or more memories (e.g., one or more flash memories,random access memories (static, dynamic or other)), optical disks,CD-ROMs, DVD ROMs, EPROMs, EEPROMs, magnetic or optical cards or othertype of machine-readable media suitable for storing electronicinstructions. Program code may also be downloaded from a remote computer(e.g., a server) to a requesting computer (e.g., a client) by way ofdata signals embodied in a propagation medium (e.g., via a communicationlink (e.g., a network connection)).

The preceding detailed descriptions are presented in terms of algorithmsand symbolic representations of operations on data bits within acomputer memory. These algorithmic descriptions and representations arethe tools used by those skilled in the data processing arts to mosteffectively convey the substance of their work to others skilled in theart. An algorithm is here, and generally, conceived to be aself-consistent sequence of operations leading to a desired result. Theoperations are those requiring physical manipulations of physicalquantities. Usually, though not necessarily, these quantities take theform of electrical or magnetic signals capable of being stored,transferred, combined, compared, and otherwise manipulated. It hasproven convenient at times, principally for reasons of common usage, torefer to these signals as bits, values, elements, symbols, characters,terms, numbers, or the like.

It should be kept in mind, however, that all of these and similar termsare to be associated with the appropriate physical quantities and aremerely convenient labels applied to these quantities. Unlessspecifically stated otherwise as apparent from the above discussion, itis appreciated that throughout the description, discussions utilizingterms such as “presenting,” “ranking,” “receiving,” “determining,”“increasing,” “decreasing,” “sending,” “launching,” “adding,” “scoring,”“using,” “boosting,” “characterizing,” or the like, refer to the actionand processes of a computer system, or similar electronic computingdevice, that manipulates and transforms data represented as physical(electronic) quantities within the computer system's registers andmemories into other data similarly represented as physical quantitieswithin the computer system memories or registers or other suchinformation storage, transmission or display devices.

The processes and displays presented herein are not inherently relatedto any particular computer or other apparatus. Various general-purposesystems may be used with programs in accordance with the teachingsherein, or it may prove convenient to construct a more specializedapparatus to perform the operations described. The required structurefor a variety of these systems will be evident from the descriptionbelow. In addition, the present invention is not described withreference to any particular programming language. It will be appreciatedthat a variety of programming languages may be used to implement theteachings of the invention as described herein.

The foregoing discussion merely describes some exemplary embodiments ofthe present invention. One skilled in the art will readily recognizefrom such discussion, the accompanying drawings and the claims thatvarious modifications can be made without departing from the spirit andscope of the invention.

What is claimed is:
 1. A non-transitory machine-readable medium havingexecutable instructions to cause one or more processing units to performa method to rank a plurality of query results from a plurality of searchdomains, the method comprising: receiving a search query from a client;applying the search query to the plurality of specialized search domainsand a broad-base search domain, wherein each of the specialized searchdomains has a specialized search domain type that is one of a pluralityof specialized search domain types and a specialized search domain typeis a characterization of that specialized search domain; receiving aplurality of specialized query results from the plurality of searchdomains and a set of broad-base query results from the broad-base searchdomain; determining a set of specialized search domain types for the setof broad-base specialized query results, wherein each of the set ofspecialized search domain types corresponds to one of the plurality ofspecialized search domain types; ranking the set of specialized searchdomain types using a set of ranking scores corresponding to the set ofbroad-based query results; ranking the plurality of specialized queryresults using at least the ranked set of specialized search domaintypes, wherein the ranking the plurality of specialized query resultsincludes increasing a ranking score of one of the plurality ofspecialized query results from one of the plurality of specializedsearch domains that corresponds to a higher ranked specialized searchdomain type; and returning the ranked plurality of query results to theclient.
 2. The machine-readable medium of claim 1, wherein thecharacterizing further comprises: receiving a set of ranking scores fromthe broad-base search domain for the set of broad-base query results;and ranking the set of specialized search domain types using the set ofranking scores.
 3. The machine-readable medium of claim 1, wherein theranking comprises: decreasing a ranking score of one of the plurality ofspecialized query results from one of the plurality of specializedsearch domains that corresponds to a lower ranked specialized searchdomain type.
 4. The machine-readable medium of claim 1, wherein each ofthe plurality of specialized search domains is selected from the groupconsisting of maps search domain, media store search domain, onlineencyclopedia search domain, and sites search domain.
 5. A method to ranka plurality of query results from a plurality of search domains, themethod comprising: receiving a search query from a client; applying thesearch query to the plurality of specialized search domains and abroad-base search domain, wherein each of the specialized search domainshas a specialized search domain type that is one of a plurality ofspecialized search domain types and a specialized search domain type isa characterization of that specialized search domain; receiving theplurality of specialized query results from the plurality of searchdomains and a set of broad-base query results from the broad-base searchdomain; determining a set of specialized search domain types for the setof specialized broad-base query results, wherein each of the set ofspecialized search domain types corresponds to one of the plurality ofspecialized search domain types; ranking the set of specialized searchdomain types using a set of ranking scores corresponding to the set ofbroad-based query results; ranking the plurality of specialized queryresults using at least the ranked set of specialized search domaintypes, wherein the ranking the plurality of specialized query resultsincludes increasing a ranking score of one of the plurality ofspecialized query results from one of the plurality of specializedsearch domains that corresponds to a higher ranked specialized searchdomain type; and returning the rank plurality of query results to theclient.
 6. The method of claim 5, wherein the characterizing comprises:receiving a set of ranking scores from the broad-base search domain forthe set of broad-base query results; and ranking the set of specializedsearch domain types using the set of ranking scores.
 7. The method ofclaim 5, wherein the ranking comprises: decreasing a ranking score ofone of the plurality of specialized query results from one of theplurality of specialized search domains that corresponds to a lowerranked specialized search domain type.
 8. The method of claim 5, whereineach of the plurality of specialized search domains is selected from thegroup consisting of maps search domain, media store search domain,online encyclopedia search domain, and sites search domain.
 9. A deviceto rank a plurality of query results from a plurality of search domains,the device comprising: a processor; a memory coupled to the processorthough a bus; and a process executed from the memory by the processorcauses the processor to receive a search query from a client, apply thesearch query to the plurality of specialized search domains and abroad-base search domain, wherein each of the specialized search domainshas a specialized search domain type that is one of a plurality ofspecialized search domain types and a specialized search domain type isa characterization of that specialized search domain, receive theplurality of specialized query results from the plurality of specializedsearch domains and a set of broad-base query results from the broad-basesearch domain, determine a set of specialized search domain types forthe set of broad-base query results, wherein each of the set ofspecialized search domain types corresponds to one of the plurality ofspecialized search domain types, rank the broad-based types using a setof ranking scores corresponding to the set of broad-based query results,rank the plurality of specialized query results using at least theranked broad-base types, and return the ranked plurality of queryresults to the client, wherein the ranking the plurality of specializedquery results includes increasing a ranking score of one of theplurality of specialized query results from one of the plurality ofspecialized search domains that corresponds to a higher rankedspecialized search domain type.
 10. The device of claim 9, wherein theprocess further causes the processor to characterize by: receiving a setof ranking scores from the broad-base search domain for the set ofbroad-base query results; and ranking the set of specialized searchdomain types using the set of ranking scores.
 11. The device of claim 9,wherein the process further causes the processor to rank by: decreasinga ranking score of one of the plurality of specialized query resultsfrom one of the plurality of specialized search domains that correspondsto a lower ranked specialized search domain type.
 12. Themachine-readable medium of claim 1, wherein each of the specializedsearch domains types is selected from the group consisting of media,locations, encyclopedia, and sites.
 13. The method of claim 5, whereineach of the specialized search domains types is selected from the groupconsisting of media, locations, encyclopedia, and sites.
 14. The deviceof claim 9, wherein each of the specialized search domains types isselected from the group consisting of media, locations, encyclopedia,and sites.